How Would You Like to Work in 2020?

Daniel Antal, CFA

9/10/2019

8-fields

  • Logical matrix to efficiently collect ideas, discuss points of views and arrange them into a cooperative working program

  • originally developed by Netherlands Economic Institute near the Erasmus University, now part of Ecorys, for working with non-technical experts about their development and learning needs

Need help? Doubts? Ideas?

Listen to each other:

  • Professionals from live music, the recording and the publishing side of recorded music;

  • Colleagues from artists, technical and managerial roles;

  • Colleagues from important supporting roles in collective management and granting authorities;

  • People with many years and few years of experience, women and men.

Ask your moderator:

  • Book-length mapping and analysis of the Hungarian and Slovak music industry;

  • Royalty pricing for several collective management organizations, experienced in banking, energy, transport, data pricing; ex ante grant analysis in music, transport, regional development, worked on for and against competition authorities;

  • 4000 musician & more than 70,000 audience questionnaires, 700 million royalty statements, more than 2000 hard indicators about European musicians, users and audience;

  • Economic impact analysis for music, tax and competitiveness advocacy, experienced in legislation and litigation on national and EU level.

Day 1: creating a collaborative to-do-list in a highly organized way

Program breakdown
Steps Examples
1 Problem/Challenge Too few people attend concerts, and they go infrequently, which forces many venues to close down -> we should increase the audience and visiting frequency of concerts
2 Change It will be less risky and more profitable to promote concerts. We hope to have longer domestic tours, which are easier to manage.
3 Program
  1. Normative support for concerts, 2. Live shows equipment, 3. Small venue technological upgrades
4 Action We suggested various changes in granting aims.
Note:
Example based on Hungarian workshop, 2015.

Day 2: creating a controlling structure and assigning tasks

Program breakdown
Controlling
Steps Examples Steps Examples
1 Problem/Challenge Too few people attend concerts, and they go infrequently, which forces many venues to close down -> we should increase the audience and visiting frequency of concerts 5 Evaluation Annual music industry report key indicators: number of municipalities with active venue, estimated # of concert visitors per year, visiting frequency per year
2 Change It will be less risky and more profitable to promote concerts. We hope to have longer domestic tours, which are easier to manage. 6 Effect indicators
  1. Increased reported concerts measured by OSA or survey, 2. More licensed venues, 3. Longer tours reported in survey, 4. Increase in live music performance royalties
3 Program
  1. Normative support for concerts, 2. Live shows equipment, 3. Small venue technological upgrades
7 Result Indicators Successful grant applications, etc.
4 Action We suggested various changes in granting aims. 8 Progress Indicators Simple indicators, or checkpoints for to do list.
Note:
Example based on Hungarian workshop, 2015.

Working rules

  • Moderator asks questions, and you ask questions from each other
  • Individually or in small groups look for answers
  • Write down 2-4 keywords of your answer as a memo
  • Moderators ask you to give your answer
  • If your colleagues agree, we re-formulate your idea into a single sentence, connect it with the card, and put it on the mindmap
  • The moderator and assistants give out different colors of card. The colors and card numbers only help in organization and note taking.
  • Over the 2 days, we try to put all ideas into a single working program.

Working rules II.

  • The idea of the 360-degree workshop that each question will answered from the point of view of artists, technicians, managers and support staff; by senior and junior members; by women and men; by participants from Prague and the other regions of Czechia; by people experienced in live music, recordings or publishing, collective management and grant management.
  • Today we have approximately 500 minutes, or a bit more than 8 hours. Refreshments will be served whenever needed, and we will utilize coffee breaks.
  • With 30 participants and 4 substantial and 4 control questions, that is only 2 minutes for each participant on each question. Please prepare for your comments to be brief, and try to utilize the collective wisdom of other colleagues from all walks of the music life in the room.
  • We may not finish with all the 8 question, but the very least with the 4 substantial and 1 control question. If we do not finish today for any remaining control questions, you are welcome to join us tomorrow, or give your opinion in writing.

Step 1: Be Positive & Constructive

  • “We do not earn enough money” -> “Czech musicians / stage hands / light crew should earn at least as much as doctors(?), teachers(?) by 2023? 2025?”

  • “Our audience is cannot spend more” -> “We should build an audience that includes higher earning middle-aged/richer/foreign/etc people”

  • “There are not enough foreign tour opportunities” -> “We would like to find out in which countries could we build new audiences first”

  • “Women are often overlooked for promotion” -> “Female music professionals should have a chance to …… (try to think about your and your colleagues shared experience)”

Step 2: Imagine a Better Working Day or Week

I am overlooked for promotion in my current role because I am a woman -> I think that women like me would be more motivated to work hard if ….. would be respected / provided.

I am worried till Friday if we will loose all our savings on our gig -> We would have a much more relaxed working week if ticket pre-sales a week ahead would reach at least … %

We have to prepare for all eventualities when we arrive to a small town venue -> We could optimize renting and transport costs if all venues in CZ would have a standard rider and … in a public database

Grant calls have great aims but the conditions are irrealistic -> We could reach our carrer goals … years earlier if granting authorities would base contracting requirements and budgeting room on the current music market situation in CZ

Step 3-4: Tell What You Could Do & What Should Be Done

  • Whenever possible, start your ideas with “our organization would be happy to offer / cooperate with …” - to highlight how you can help in fields where you are the best.

  • If you are critical of an organization, politely point out that “… should be considering” - especially if they are present, they want to help.

  • If something is missing in CZ that you saw abroad “we would need a tool / know-how / device / regulation / law / general understanding” - maybe we can find a way to implement it.

  • If possible, do not dramatize with “it is unaceptable / stupid / corrupt”, do not use judgemental words for other organizations present - they probably had no prior chance to learn about your experience.

  • In Step 4 we will create collective to-do-lists, and in Step 3 we will try to organize them into larger groups.

Step 4: Some Examples

  • Granting authorities should allow … costs and except … as proof of fulfillment.

  • We need an analytical tool that can tell us in which countries would there be interest / would there be no interest for our new album.

  • I want to know what is the realistic value of a radio play / Spotify stream / YouTube stream / Bandcamp download in CZ & SK & …

  • Bands and their managerial / techncial team should have an opportunity to be promoted if ……

  • It should be monitored with anonymous surveys if women / young artists / old technicians have equal …. treated equally ….

  • The gap between …. composer / producer / performer royalties of Austrian and Czech artists should not be more than …..

  • Policymakers, politicians and the general public should be made aware of ….., ……, ……

  • Band buses should be exempted from the regulations for taxis / passenger buses / lorries … to be able to serve venues in …., …..

  • Grants should be available to meet the changing safety / environmental / labor / consumer / tax regulation protection guidelines on ….

Expected results

  • The whole program map and suggested programs will be available for working groups. The working groups are voluntary - members collaborate to achieve achieve the program aims
  • SoundCzech and IDU commit to seek funds and accomplish the program elements related to music export
  • SoundCzech and IDU try to advocate other stakeholders in voluntary working groups to take ownership of program elements and make them happen.
  • If necessary, we seek external innovation, R&D, cultural funding from the Czech state, municipalities, the EU or the IVF.
  • We try to cooperate with Slovak, Hungarian, Austrian, or other organizations.

Special participants of the workshop

  • Monika, Misa & Márton on behalf of SoundCzech will help the moderator to collect, formulate, organize and record your ideas. Because there are many colleagues in the room, and we want to hear everybody, try to be brief and follow their instructions.

  • Brenda will take detailed notes in English. We will use this memo to create a logical working proposal, and will invite all participants to collaborate acting on these proposals.

  • We invited colleagues from Slovakia who are considering to create a paralell, coordinated work in the neighborhood. We believe that any regional cooperation can increase the strength of the local industry, because colleagues in BG, HR, HU, EE, LT, PL, RO, SK, SI, and even in AT are trying to solve very similar problems.

  • Pete Bradwell joined us from London on behalf of Consolidated Independent. CI gave access to 700,000,0000 royalty records from 17 countries to understand the economy and challenges of the streaming market in the CEE.

Live Music in CEE

  • Different purchasing power compared to West, South, North
  • Different concert demographics in the big regions of Europe
  • Very different concert markets and musician strategies are present in this vast geographical area


Press Arrows Up / Down for To Review Live Music

Purchasing Power for Events

Demography: Select countries for comparison

Demography: All Europe

Seasonality of Concert Demand

Musician’s Concert Opportunities

Key takeaways

  • Low density of purchasing power and time leads to huge festivals
  • Musicians are paid on many low paid gigs
  • This strategy does not work when labor costs increase and small venues die, as happened post-accession in the more mature CEE/EU markets

Recorded Music In The CEE

  • Lower purchasing power than in West and North
  • Less willingness to pay at all, private copying is more prevalent (in fact, we measured rising euro values)
  • Weaker streaming markets, reliance on public performance royalties and PCR (“blank media levies”)
  • Royalty gap - by all benchmarks, royalty levels are lower in the CEE than in the North and West
    Press Arrows Up / Down for To Review Live Music

Willingness & Ability To Purchase

Low Royalty Levels

Royalty Pricing

Streaming Markets: What Market Players Know

  • The Global Market Report covers total market revenues and dollar/dollar growth rates at last years’ (!) exchange rates
  • European stakeholders are affected by exchange rate changes
  • Subscription fee in the countries where they sell, mainly the domestic country; subscriber numbers in the countries where they sell, mainly again the domestic country
  • Repertoire competition in the countries where they sell, because that determines the monthly stream price in the local currency.
  • So how these are affecting an Austrian, Albanian, Czech or Slovenian producer, performer or composer?

Streaming Markets: CEEMID Indices

Grants

Press Arrow Down for To Review This Topic

Availability & Suitability of Grants

Music Exports in CEE

  • Most music export in live and in streaming is to neighbors
  • Music with serious royalty potential only from UK, FR, DE, SE, NL
  • The domestic market share is seriously declining.

Press Arrows Up / Down for To Review Live Music

Market share on Spotify Top 50 In Summer 2019

European Export Origins To European Charts

How Musicians Earn Their Living?

Complex Careers: Artist, Technical & Managerial Roles

How Much Musicians Earn?

Life Satisfaction Levels

Discussion Points

- Working with data-driven companies like Alphabet/Google/YouTube, Apple/iTunes/Apple Music, Spotify or Deezer?

- Competing in the algorithm-based global marketplace, training algorithms for sales, exports, quotas: how is music sold in 2019 and how can you compete from the CEE?

- Closing the royalty gap on the level of collective management, labels, publishers and individuals. How can the CEE at least catch up to the level of average wage convergence to the EU average?

- Live music’s value and the small venues’ problem: how can they invest into 21st century and remain viable with high labour costs?

- Economic policies, taxation and grants for the popular music sector: takeaways for better advocacy.

Hosts: SoundCzech & IDU

Thanks to Experts and Innovators in Digital Music

Consolidated Independent supported the making of the streaming indexes. CI is the market leader in managed services for the digital music industry, connecting the best independent music with the opportunities of the global market.

Special thanks to the data science team: Theo Gardner, Andy McFarland & Jerome Wynne for data preparation and advice.

Feedback & Questions

Contact: danielantal.eu - linkedin - github - dataverse

Topics: royalty valuation - private copying - grant design - policy advocacy - ceemid observatory